I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Gardening in New England – Sweet Potatoes, Lilies as Far as the Eye Can See, and I’m No Corn Farmer…. That’s for Sure

Have you grown sweet potatoes before? How do these look to you? Am I going to have a crate of sweet potatoes to harvest this fall? Will there be loads of them to last us through the winter? I planted 50 slips, and I don’t know much about sweet potatoes but I think these are looking pretty good. My friend Zoë in Pennsylvania though, said hers are about 4 times as bushy right now.

Check out those dried bean plants!!! I need to get sticks in the ground so they can climb. I’m hoping there will be enough beans to get us through winter for soups and Saturday night baked beans around the wood stove.

The corn patch…. It’s not looking so hot. Only about 20% of the corn I planted is growing well and I know it’s all my fault.

The corn patch was never watered {unless it rained, which has been only 3 times since the seeds were planted}.

The patch is in the shade {something we won’t be able to fix until this fall when the leaves behind the garden drop and we can get out there and clear the back 40}.

There’s no mulch? I don’t know if corn really needs mulch though… When you drive by fields of corn it looks pretty bare on the ground. But what do I know?

Oh well, there’s always next year and hey, I guess I’ll learn about pollinating corn by hand this year, right?

If I never see another red, orange or yellow daylily in my life, I’d be fine with that. I’m more of a pink, purple and blue girl when it comes to flowers.

I’m not sure when my love affair for growing vegetables really started, but I know without a doubt now, I am a person who favors vegetables over flowers.

Now is the time to get that extra planting of root vegetables in the garden. Thanksgiving people…. It’s just around the corner and wouldn’t it be wonderful if your side dishes contained homegrown vegetables? Yes, yes it would. So hop to it {Says the girl who has yet to get her own fall seeds in the ground!}.

I wish Mrs. HB were here. She would know what to do with all the peppers.

Maybe I’ll ship her a big box of them when they’re ready to harvest. I miss our walks, The Net Shed, and arguing over really dumb stuff.

Ahhh summer. We are in the thick of it. When the days are long, and hot and tiring. When the bugs are out in full force, the air is muggy and there is SO MUCH TO BE DONE. It’s times like this, I wish I could clone myself just so I could keep up with all the needs to be done.

Comments

Mavis your garden is looking wonderful! I’m a little sad that you don’t care for daylilies or iris but to each their own. That’s why there are so many wonderful flower and veggie varieties to choose from! I love how artful your veggie garden is. Veggie gardens are soothing to me- is that weird? Anyhoo, a suggestion for using all your peppers- have you ever made hot pepper jelly? Even people that don’t like hot things like this cause the “hot” is very very subtle; or not depending on how hot you decide to make it. But the jelly is awesome over a brick of cream cheese with crackers and would make great holiday gifts! I’m planning on making some for gifts this year myself. I’m sure you also already know that peppers freeze extremely well so you could prepare and freeze some for later meals? I like to hollow them out so they’re ready for stuffed peppers. Can’t wait to see what you decide to do and the other suggestions from readers! Happy gardening!

Yes! Hot pepper jelly is on my list for this summer as well as freezing some for winter use. I do like the smaller purple iris but I am a daffodil, tulip and calla lily girl at heart. The peonies though… those are pretty amazing.

Funny, I am in the “if I never see another calla lily as long as I live, that is OK” camp. Flashbacks to friends’ weddings in the late 80s early 90s. Just detest them. But if I had those gorgeous daylilies in those colors I would be thrilled. The orange palette is my HH’s favorite and I love to make him happy with the flowers in the yard.

Agree, that is why we have so many wonderful flowers to choose from! To each his own!

LOL I’m of the can’t stand peonies but love iris camp! But I have to say I’m also a pink, purple, blue girl and almost got in a heated argument one time at our local iris sale about NOT buying yellow iris. The lady was VERY persistent that I buy some but I prevailed!

Corn can be tricky. It definitely does like full sun, and supplemental watering can be helpful. In our area where we haven’t had very much rain you can really see the farmer’s corn starting to curl. Yours isn’t curling…it looks healthy. Also, sweet corn won’t get as big as the commercial crops, so you should be seeing tassels start to form really soon! As long as you have wind and insects, you shouldn’t have to worry about pollinating the ears, nature will do it! Our corn (in NY) is smaller than yours and I still have hope (If I could keep the deer out if it it would help). Also, germination in corn can be tricky too. Your germination doesn’t look horrible….large fields have plants that don’t come up too, you just don’t always notice them. Our germination rate was probably about the same as yours…there are lots of factors.

So excited you are getting a new chicken coop! We have to replace the floor in ours this year, but it looks to be about the same size as yours.

Good luck! We are headed to the county fair this week with chickens, rabbits, goats, and our turkey, Martha Washington….so we are hoping for a cool down in the temperature for the sake of all of us!

All looking pretty amazing!
So funny you don’t like daylilies etc. We also inherited a bunch of flowers, bushes etc when we moved here… I like them all and too lazy to move and replace anything anyway, so they get to stay unless they get in the way.
I prefer my vegetables, but get a lot of pleasure out of scattering flowers throughout the gardens too – figure the bees need all the help they can get, so I am trying to attract as many as I can with extra flowers in the vegetable gardens.
Corn. Its terribly hungry and thirsty! Basically though if its planted close enough together you won’t have to worry about hand pollinating. Mine did best the year I mulched, fed and watered it well. Was so so so so so worth the extra work! Yum!
Love your post and rail fences with the wire. Since I need to build a new fence I think I am liking the style you have there!!
Stay cool!

I’m in Wisconsin and my sweet potatoes are taking over the garden. They have spread way more than yours. They need a very long growing season, so perhaps you just didn’t get them in as soon as mine. I planted around May 12. I only plant 6 slips and usually get around 1/2 bushel of them. Do you like stuffed peppers? I freeze my peppers-no blanching-and use them all winter long. Also diced, chunk, and make strips for whatever I want to use them for. Just put on cookie sheet to freeze and bag later. If you have jalapeño peppers, cowboy candy is really good–not really a candy but condiment. I love day lilies–really all flowers and have many flower beds blooming constantly.

I know you don’t like the daylilies, but have you tried eating them? I’ve never tried it, but supposedly, you can pick and eat the flower buds before they open…they are supposed to be like green beans. …and if you have as many as you say, then that should be a good crop!

One year we had a bumper crop of peppers! All types from sweet to hot grew like mad. I chopped and sliced a ton for the freezer, of course.
I also dried a boatload! Some I left sliced and they were gorgeous in a Ball jar. I had so many tho, I ground them into a powder. Oh man, good stuff! I blended dried bell pepper along with jalapeño and other varieties. The tastiest spice on the planet! So good in every kind of Mexican dish, sauces, sprinkled on pizza, salad.
The dehydrator was running for days and I also dried them in the oven and strung a bunch, too.
If you do decide to grind, be sure and wear a dust mask and work outside if possible.
Enjoy your bounty!

I think you should put them either up for sale the plants you don’t want or give them away. People pay a lot of money for all those plants. You may even be able to get someone to dig them up for you. 🙂
Corn is tricky. Maybe not enough food for them? but your doesnt look bad.
Congrats on the new place.

Mavis,
I pickle my hot peppers and then use them for nachos. You can formally pickle them, but I just take a quart jar, pack it full with peppers and then cover with boiling vinegar and salt. I keep the jar in the fridge and use here and there as time goes. So good!

Hi Mavis! You garden looks amazing! Sweet potatoes do look a little behind but they look healthy and with all the heat they will take off. Last year I planted about 15 slips, they produced plenty for two people (about 50 pounds) and still have some left.
And yes, to Diane, you can eat the leaves. They are great in salads or sautéed with garlic and pine nuts.

May want to consider running some soil tests on your garden plots this fall. Your local extension agency can help you with that. Get those plots in prime shape for next year. Corn likes lots of nourishment, water, and sunshine. I’ve always planted my sweet potatoes in hills and continued to hill them as they grow. I have the best garden I’ve had in a long, long time….this year it got horse manure and 15 inches of rain in June.

Hi Mavis- Corn are heavy feeders- lots of manure- and water and SUN !Don’t give up on Corn- it is So Delicious! Just made corn fritters ala Smitten Kitchen last night and YUM!! You’d love them!
Your garden is looking freaking amazing and just your first year! You are a true vegetable gardener- no mistaking! I get it,as it is my passion too. I grow flowers and herbs to support the bees and butterflies and other wonderful insect life -but veggies-The Best!
My motto-Keep Calm and Carry On.

We grow corn ever year , WATER and Sun and we fertilize every year and we get a great crop, this is the Interior is BC , it’s 39’ right now at 4:49 pm , picky plate for dinner & wishing we still had our pool , all looks great, find a pig farmer for their poop or better yet get one and have them root up your next area for your garden they are fabulous at doing that .

I used to not like tiger lillies but now I do. I know nothing about corn. I’m getting my first small greenhouse from a friend this week but my gardening is on hold since I had a minor outpatient knee surgery today.

I’m not a fan of orange day lilies, as they grow all along our country roads in upstate New York, but I love just about every other flower that exists. But this is a cyclical thing with me.

All through my twenties, if we didn’t grow it, we didn’t eat it, which resulted in a huge garden. Then in my thirties, I moved into an old country Victorian that had almost nothing growing around it. And as I was working full-time then, my rule was: if it has to be canned or frozen, I’m not growing it. Pretty was the only requirement.

Now I think I’ve balanced it out a little, so I’m growing some of each. Maybe you just need to get old. 🙂

Hi Mavis,
I think it’s amazing what you have been able to accomplish in only a few months. Cut yourself a break! I’m afraid I have nothing to add about sweet potatoes as I’ve never grown them. But I figured out how to grow sweet corn after a few years of hit or miss and now you can’t stop me! I start my corn in modules, less to get started early than to simply ensure I have enough healthy plants and don’t rely on spotty germination. Corn are very heavy feeders— your solid looks way to spare for this veg. Here’s what I do: start a zillion seeds in modules. Go through the bed I want to use (which absolutely must be full sun) and add a LOT of composted manure. Then, I make small hills about 8”-9” across, but placed fairly tightly, about 12” apart. Then I plant three seedlings in each hill, about 3” away from the other two seedlings in that hill. Corn can be planted quite tightly and for some reason, planting three plants per hill results in a healthier crop, I don’t know why. I also water my corn heavily. Soil is always moist, not wet. Your soil appears to be far too dry. I suggest you buy two 6’ high pole sprinklers to cover your entire corn patch next year. Once plants are a good foot high, I plant my squash and pumpkin starts in and amongst the corn plants, spaced quite far apart. This is the best change I made: the squash and pumpkins need lots of room to spread out, love the rich soil and good moisture and completely cover the soil and prevent any weeds. It’s a bit of genius that a very good hobby farm owners taught me. And I stay completely out of the bed once it’s planted. Just let it do it’s thing and even if you have a few weeds when you start, they simply disappear when the squash/pumpkin plants get rolling. Super productive way to use a plot of ground, but you need full sun, very rich soil, and lots of regular water. But once planted, its zero maintenance except to turn the hoses on about every other day. Good luck!

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!! That’s just fantastic. Yet another creepy bug to be afraid of. Thank you for the heads up though…. Oh my word. What have I gotten myself into? And here I thought it was going to be all wood burning fires, snow and quaint pastry shops.

Cicada’s! Mavis – they may look creepy but they are really gorgeous (in a creepy way)
To me they are the proper sound of summer.
At least they don’t bite or cause horrible diseases.
They shed their exoskeletons so you can really see what they look like if you don’t want to pick up the living one! (I used to chase one of my sisters around the yard with the cases as a good older sister should. Happily she is not scared of them anymore lol)
Their life cycle is amazing, if somewhat sad… they live underground as a nymph before emerging as the singing adult to live for only 6 weeks!!
Honestly – cicadas will be the least of your bug worries 🙂

I had to laugh – all the flowers you mentioned I cut an bring inside for my kitchen table! Yes, lilies and iris too!

Your garden looks wonderful! I don’t have anything helpful to say about sweet potatoes but now I have a bug in my ear about growing them next year. Corn, yes, ditto everything everyone else said. We gave up years ago (the deer! seriously – as soon as they were ripe, they were gone) but we have a share in a CSA that has a 30ft electric fence around her garden to keep them out and we savor every bite of corn we get from her!

Mavis- Have you & Mrs. Hillbilly tried Marco Polo (or some such app?) – you could walk & talk as you go through your neighborhood & leave each other messages, arguing about all of the same old dumb stuff! 🙂 I have found it works really well for my friends who live on the opposite side of the world (or just even the east coast) 😉
The garden looks beautiful! I didn’t even plant this year because we are moving to Toledo, OH. :{

I hope you will consider the upside to holly azaleas and other prickly shrubs (as well as all the lilies) …they were likey planted because the deer won’t demolish them! Take it from someone who had fed expensive salad to these beasts before realizing that the previous owners had already taken care of the learning curve for our property LOL

My grandmother had a vegetable garden on her large property off Beach Drive in West Seattle. A lot grown on a huge compost pile – tomatoes did especially well there. The corn we grew at the beach place on Whidbey Island. That is where we kids got involved. If you stayed at the beach place you had to do your share for the garden. Corn. I would say to put a fish in every hole like the Pilgrims…. but no. We had to take the wheelbarrow down to the beach and fill it up with seaweed. Haul it back to the garden and spread it around the base of all the corn plants – yes 3 to a mound… in rows… long and many rows. The seaweed served to fertilize and retain moisture in the very sandy soil. We kept putting fresh seaweed throughout the summer. The corn was watered regularly. We always had GREAT corn. My grandmother canned and canned and canned. The corn was used in relishes and other fun stuff…. best of course was on the cobb with lots of butter. Recommendation… fertilize, put some sort of moisture holding compost or something around the base of the corn plants and water regularly… if you can get seaweed or some sort of fertilizer that has the same properties great.